Sunday, September 25, 2011

On the Menu Today at "Cathy's Kitchen" - Carrot Muffins!

Recently I went to the local grocery store (as always looking for a great deal). Looking around the produce section I saw that carrots were on sale for 3 pounds for a buck. Of course, into the cart they went! I love to bake so I had visions of looking through my cookbooks (at last count, over 100) thinking sure, I can find a good carrot muffin recipe, no problem. Well, after looking through several cookbooks and even getting a few more cookbooks from the library, I couldn't find one that I thought my family and I would actually eat at "Cathy's Kitchen." So, I decided to invent my own recipe! Here are the ingredients: 2 large eggs (slightly beaten), 2/3 cup canola or vegetable oil, 1/2 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup light or dark brown sugar, 1 1/2 cups peeled and coarsely grated carrots, 1 1/4 cups all purpose white flour, 1/2 cup old fashioned oatmeal, 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Preheat oven to 375. Use a 12 cup muffin tin and put paper liners into each. Put all the ingredients into a large bowl. Mix until well blended and then put about 1/2 of the mixture into each muffin tin. Bake for about 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove muffins to a rack to continue cooling. I gave one to my husband and asked him to rank it on a scale of 1-10 (1 being the worst, 10 the best). He gave them a 9, and told me they would have been a 10 had they been bigger! I guess I'll need to invest in a 6 cup muffin tin that makes bakery sized muffins!!